Thursday, February 11, 2010

"This Book is Overdue". Chapter 2, Information Sickness

Link to November 1, 1981, New York Times book review, "Fun Dolphin, Smart Whale". Mooney's novel is reviewed in tandem with one by Rob Swigart, who is (was? -- it's been a long time) the husband of a teaching assistant I had for freshman English at SUNY Buffalo.

From August 31, 2007, Townblog post, "Information Sickness": Ted Mooney's 1981 novel Easy Travel to Other Places introduces the idea of "information sickness," whereby the collection of information only leads to an increased need for more information, and this process -- somewhat like an intenstinal worm -- leaves us hungry and sick.

Whoa! Coming up with the concept of "information sickness" in 1981. Most libraries didn't offer public-access Internet until the mid-1990s. Thirty years ago, we were still in card-catalog, print-reference mode. I hadn't even formulated my "Top 40 Ready Reference Sources" yet.Yeah, I even updated it last year. But only the top 20.

Excerpt from executive summary: T his report is about libraries and the challenges they face in the digital world. But it is also about every noncommercial institution -- from public TV to the freenets -- that provides information to the public. It uses libraries as an exemplar of what can happen to even our most cherished public institutions when they face the onset of the digital revolution, a seismic societal shift. The report's findings about the intersection -- and divergence -- of library leaders' visions with those of the public hold lessons for everyone who values and wants to promote the public sphere of information and communications.

Excerpt:The result of this exploration was "Buildings, Books and Bytes," a study released in November that has elicited widespread, positive reaction from the library community -- both individual librarians and professional associations alike -- as a needed call to action to a profession struggling to carve out a meaningful role for itself in a rapidly changing information landscape. Briefly, the study found significant gaps between library leaders' expectations for their profession and those of the public. The public lends libraries a degree of overall support rarely enjoyed by other American public institutions. Yet, Americans are not yet ready to cede to libraries the role of technology leader. And, in a finding that shocked many members of the library community, Americans appear to have low regard for librarians as a cadre of skilled, highly trained information professionals, believing that volunteers can staff libraries just as well -- and for fewer tax dollars. Thus, the public's message to the library world was clear: "do not simply assume that if you say 'we are now technology leaders, follow us,' we will follow. We need to be convinced. "

What Is a Shifted Librarian?So I call myself "The Shifted Librarian," but what does that mean? I took the name from a presentation that I do called "Information Shifting" about how the change from pursuing information to receiving information is and will be affecting libraries.